Old Photograph Ramsay Memorial Hall Port Ellen Island Of Islay Scotland

Old photograph of the Ramsay Memorial Hall in Port Ellen, Islay, Scotland. John Ramsay, born 1814, died 24 Jun 1892, was a Scottish distiller, merchant and Liberal Party politician. He was the son of Robert Ramsay of Stirling and his wife Elizabeth Stirling. He was educated at Glasgow University and became a merchant in Glasgow. He was granted a lease in 1836 on the struggling Port Ellen whisky distillery on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides. He enlarged and improved the pier at Port Ellen in 1881 and became one of the pioneers of the export trade in Scotch whisky to the United States. He also inaugurated the first bi-weekly cargo and passenger service by steamship between Islay and Glasgow. He helped to improve the island's infrastructure and built Kildalton Castle, a rambling Scottish baronial country house in Port Ellen. He was a Deputy Lieutenant and a J.P. for Argyllshire and a J.P. for Lanarkshire and showed a major interest in education. In 1864 he was a member of the Royal Commission on Education in Scotland, being also an unpaid member of Board of Education for Scotland. He was a Fellow or member of several learned societies. Ramsay married firstly Eliza, Shields of Lanchester, Durham in 1857. She died in 1864, and he married again in 1871 to Lucy Martin of Auchendennan, Dumbarton. He died at the age of 78.



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